The mission of the group is to provide a safe, non-judgmental space in which all the participants can reveal who they are while they explore their creativity. The weekly classes consisted of basic acting exercises which culminated in a production at the end of the semester, held in the Syracuse Stage ‘Sutton Pavilion’ theatre. Becci was one of the original members of the group which is now known as ‘The All Star C.A.S.T.’ (Community Actors and Students’ Theatre). Becci wrote the plays, directed and acted in them – her editions of ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’, ‘Hamlet’, ‘Grease’ as well as many original plays were all big friendly theatrical occasions!Ī student at the Drama department, Stephanie Leimbacher, suggested starting a theatre group for young people from the community with special needs so they could work with university drama students. She put on her plays in the family sitting room and invited the neighbours to be in the casts. When the family moved to Syracuse, where her parents were teaching in the Drama department of Syracuse University, Becci started her own theatre company called ‘The Buckingham Players’, (she and her family lived on Buckingham Avenue). The language thrilled her, the poetry, the movement, the stories and characters – it all excited and stimulated her vocally and physically to express herself. Becci fell in love with theatre and acting and Shakespeare and began writing her own plays based on the Shakespeare productions she was seeing all the time in rehearsal and performance. where Becci’s actor parents worked with a Shakespeare company in Lenox, Massachusetts.

When she was 10 years old, the family moved to the U.S.A. However, with the help of a very special homeopathic doctor who looked beyond the negative label of ‘disability’ and who saw Becci for herself, she began to grow and to find strength.Įvery stage of her development was delayed, but she was gradually able to go to school, where she became the guinea pig for the ‘Mainstreaming Experiment’, or ‘Inclusion’ of children with special needs into regular schools in the Inner London Education Area.

It wasn’t until she was 6 months old that she ‘decided to live’, and at 2 1/2 years, Becci still only weighed 12 pounds. My advice is to put her in a home, and have another child as soon as possible”. She will probably never be able to develop physically or mentally. A well-meaning doctor told her parents “Your daughter has Down Syndrome.

Becci Ingram was born in London, England, on July 4th, 1974.

Second Time Around by Gay Ingram